Russia's 'City of Brides' triggers baby boom after love quests

March 28 When Nick Wilsdon met his Russian wife, Anna, on the Internet,friends teased him about his mail- order bride. Turns out, he was amail-order husband.Three years after first exchanging e-mails with Anna on an online datingsite, the Web designer from England's south coast made the 2,200-mile trekto Ivanovo , Russia's ``City of Brides.'' He and Anna are now expectingtheir first child.

The Ivanovo region has the highest ratio of women to men in Russia, a legacyof the Soviet textile mills that imported female workers from across thecountry. The city, which once helped marriage bureaus recruit young womenfor foreign spouses, is now enticing residents to stay and raise families.That's fuelling a baby boom as Russia struggles to stem a population decline.

``When I get in the lift of our building, I'm surrounded by so many kids itmakes me think of rabbits,'' Wilsdon, 32, says at the 12th floor apartmenthe shares with Anna, 29, in Ivanovo.

Since the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Russia's population has dwindled4.1 percent to 142.2 million. Unless fertility rates improve, the populationmay plunge to 128 million by 2025, the Washington-based World Bank said inNovember.

By contrast, births in the Ivanovo region jumped 7.8 percent last year, fourtimes the pace of 2006, according to national statistics. The number ofsecond children in families rose by a record 24 percent, more than doublethe Russian average.

With the death rate declining and the outflow of people reversed, cityofficials expect the population will stop shrinking this year for the firsttime since the Soviet era.

Female Assets

Ivanovo achieved the turnaround by making the most of its biggest asset:women. According to Russian government statistics , 56 percent of the city's432,000 people are women.

To encourage them to stay and raise children, the city has doubled thenumber of subsidized home loans for families, added 1,000 kindergartenspaces in two years, and built a new maternity hospital, says Deputy MayorIgor Svetushkov.

``We're not calling ourselves the `City of Women,''' Svetushkov says. Abride is a ``partner for life, a symbol of the family. We'd like to tellpeople to come here to find their happiness.'' Other Russian regions havehad less success in boosting their birth rates.

In Ulyanovsk, south of Moscow, the local government gave mothers andfathers...

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